Dick Parry, who created some of the most indelible saxophone solos in rock music history through his association with Pink Floyd and lifelong friend David Gilmour, died Friday at age 83.
Parry was particularly lionized for his unforgettable solos on the albums “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You Were Here,” including parts on such signature songs as “Money” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” He continued to appear on albums and tours that David Gilmour did as a solo artist or Floyd frontman in later years.
The death was announced by Gilmour on social media Friday afternoon.
“My dear friend Dick Parry died this morning,” the singer-guitarist wrote. “Since I was seventeen, I have played in bands with Dick on saxophone, including Pink Floyd.”
Gilmour continued, “His feel and tone make his saxophone playing unmistakable, a signature of enormous beauty that is known to millions and is such a big part of songs such as ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’… ‘Us and Them’ and ‘Money.’”
“He played in the last band I had that included [former Floyd keyboardist] Rick Wright for the On An Island Tour [in 2006] and at Live 8 with Pink Floyd [the band’s one and only full reunion show, in 2005].”
Gilmour concluded his short and sweet message with an introduction to a photo montage that showed just how very far back he and the Suffolk-born Parry went: “Here are some pictures of him, including one of him and me playing for the ABC Minors at the Victoria Cinema in Cambridge in 1963.”
Among the other projects Parry appeared on were 1994’s “The Division Bell” album, recorded after the split between Gilmour and Roger Waters, which featured his recognizable sax sound on “Wearing the Inside Out.” Parry toured with the newly reconstituted Floyd lineup that year as well. Earlier, he had gone on the road with Floyd from 1973 through 1977.
Parry was famous among some fans for strapping on two saxes at once on stage, to switch one out for the other partway through his “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” soloing.
Some famous names chimed in with comments on Gilmour’s Instagram post, like Graham Nash, who wrote, “I’m very sorry for your loss, David.” Said Merck Mercuriadis, “Thank you Mr. Parry for the music, condolences to all.”
In a post wishing Parry a happy birthday in December 2024, Gilmour had referred to Parry as “one of my oldest friends.”
In 1994, Gilmour talked about bringing Parry back into the fold for that year’s album and tour. “I got a Christmas card from Dick [Parry] who I hadn’t seen for years, and who’d given up the saxophone entirely and I think was unemployed, living in a village near Cambridge, doing nothing,” he said. “I knew that years ago he had sold his saxophones and gone into being a farrier, shoeing horses. And he had apparently given that up as well, and he had bought himself another saxophone a year or so ago, and he just sent me a Christmas card… I just rang him up to say ‘How are you doing?’ He was talking to me about it and I had been thinking about what to do about saxophone on the tour because we weren’t going to need a lot of it, but we needed some.
“I asked him if he felt like auditioning for coming on the tour, to see if he still had his chops together, and he told me that he thought he was playing better than he’d ever played. And I got him down to the boat to have a little audition. And he played about three phrases and myself and Bob [Ezrin] said, ‘Fine, he’s still got it. Screw this auditioning business. See if we can stick him on something.’… The only one we could think of that would be really appropriate for sax was ‘Wearing the Inside Out,’ so we put him on it. Boom, he’s got that tone. It’s fantastic. You can recognize it straight away. And so he’s on the tour with us as well.”
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